肇論新疏 1.8

1.8

What the four treatises venerate is called the "main doctrine" (zong). "Root" (ben) refers to the fundamental, which pervades both phenomena (fa) and principle (yi). As for phenomena, there are the general and the particular. The general is the ekacitta of dharmatā. Master Jingyuan of Zhongwu said: "Now these four treatises take this ekacitta as their main doctrine. Although the four treatises differ, they each also expound the meaning of this ekacitta." As for the particular, what the four treatises take as their main doctrines differs individually. Why is it so? Without the ekacitta, there would be no way to subsume the four dharmas; without the four dharmas, there would be no way to display the ekacitta. The one is the four, and the four are the one. "Principle" (yi) refers to doctrinal principle; it reveals the aspects of the principle based on the aforementioned substance of phenomena. If the phenomena are general, the principle is general; if the phenomena are particular, the principle is particular. The principles of the four passages herein, according to their scope, are what the four treatises below take as their main doctrines. Based on this, without the Zongben, there would be no way to unify the four treatises; without the four treatises, there would be no way to unfold the Zongben. If we take phenomena as the root, what is taken as the main doctrine is the root; if we take principle as the root, the root is also principle. If phenomena and principle are divided into two, when the root belongs to phenomena, it is the principle of the root.